1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera having a cartridge chamber into which a film cartridge is loaded and a spool chamber in which a spool is disposed to wind thereon a film of the film cartridge.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional cameras, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications No. HEI 8-194252 and No. HEI 8-278543 and as shown in FIG. 11, each have a spool chamber (not shown), a cartridge chamber (not shown) and a connection part 101a provided for connection between the spool chamber and the cartridge chamber. In the structure of such conventional cameras, the connection part 101a is disposed on the side of a photo-taking optical system with respect to a film transport path in a photo-taking image frame, and an aperture part 101b is formed in the connection part 101a.
However, due to the recent trend of reducing the size of cameras, a lens barrel has been becoming smaller and the length in height of cameras has been becoming shorter. Therefore, the vertical width of the connection part 101a has been becoming shorter. Further, in the case of cameras having a retractable-type lens barrel, the thickness of the connection part 101a in an optical axis direction has been becoming thinner for the purpose of minimizing the thickness of the camera with the lens barrel retracted into its stowed position. Hence, the strength of the connection part 101a in the camera body decreases accordingly. Therefore, the camera body having such weak connection part 101a tends to be distorted by an external force on a front or rear cover of the camera. Such distortion of the camera body then tends to bring about various problems, such as a focus deviation of the photo-taking optical system, inaccuracy of film transportation, etc.